"OMG! Maybe US Air figures if you’re drunk, you won’t mind their ghetto on-board product. Is the house wine Cisco?"
As a former flight attendant and in the industry for 23 years I have had to use the FAR's to remove or deny someone boarding a flight due to intoxication. The rule is set to give the airline an out but it is up to the gate agents and flight attendants to be the front line force to help this rule get inforced. Passengers wonder why they can get thrown off an airline flight so easily and this rule supports the Captain and crew when the situation comes into question. Technically the Captain cannot waive this rule at his discretion if the flight is the ground or at the gate. So passengers should learn how to drink, especially when its free and know when to say when! (The actual rule as crew members know it and appears in every airline flight manual)
(Title 14: Aeronautics and Space
PART 121—OPERATING REQUIREMENTS: DOMESTIC, FLAG, AND SUPPLEMENTAL OPERATIONS
Subpart T—Flight Operations 121.575 Alcoholic beverages. (b) No certificate holder may serve any alcoholic beverage to any person aboard any of its aircraft who—
(1) Appears to be intoxicated;
(c) No certificate holder may allow any person to board any of its aircraft if that person appears to be intoxicated.
P.S. Sorry for the length